Future Observatory Journal
Design, ecology and a future
N°2
More-than-human thinking is a challenge to design as we know it. What does it mean to design not just for ourselves, but for other species and for the health of natural systems? Can we de-centre ourselves enough to design with the living world?
Part 1 - Forecast
Interactive Essay
4 propositions
Worlding
A Future Observatory forecast
This forecast presents worlding as a framework to rethink design practice with more-than-humans
Part 2 - Practice
Editorial
667 words
Primer
2,901 words
On Being Inside Gaia
In the 1970s, British scientist James Lovelock developed a unifying theory of the planet as a coherent, living entity: the Gaia concept. Tracing the evolution of the theory in the subsequent decades, artist and writer James Bridle expounds more-than-human design as a way of both co-constructing the world and reconstructing ourselves
Re-reading
13 annotations
Re-Reading Thomas Nagel What Is It Like To Be A Bat?
In his 1974 text What is Is It Like To Be A Bat?, philosopher Thomas Nagel grappled with questions of consciousness and the impossibility of truly experiencing the world as other species do. Drawing on their multispecies speculations, designers Dunne & Raby provide a new reading of his work today
Visual Essay
8 games
Game Over, Restart? Exploring ecology through video games
A growing wave of video games is going beyond pure entertainment to help us understand our place in a biodiverse world. What can we learn when we play along?
Interview
3,641
‘Noticing is my way of opposing’ A conversation with Anna Tsing
The anthropologist turned the matsutake mushroom into a hero of theory, and her work has become a touchstone for designers looking to find new life in the ruins of modernity. Here Tsing discusses the radical arts of noticing, and her excitement about design that engages with the more-than-human world – as long as it anticipates its feral effects
Manual
6 guidelines
A Manual for More-than-Human Design
A practical set of guidelines, precepts and advice for designing with other species in mind
Essay
2,706 words
Animal House Wilding the Mäusebunker
A redevelopment proposal for the Mäusebunker, a disused animal testing facility in Berlin, offers a new way of imagining the architecture of multispecies existence
Case Study
1,439 words
Design in Deep Time The architecture of Cave_bureau
Cave_bureau put the geology and ecology of Nairobi at the heart of their explorations, combining Indigenous and decolonial knowledge with progressive, multi-species land-use strategies to envision a truly more-than-human city
From the Portfolio
5 objects
From the Portfolio Future Observatory research projects
Future Observatory funds design research projects at different scales across the UK. From the Portfolio brings together a group of objects emerging from our funding portfolio that respond to the theme of the issue
Essay
2,818 words
Cities of the Sea Co-designing coral reefs
The impacts of climate change could soon spell the end for coral reefs. Can more-than-human design interventions help slow down their demise?
Part 3 - Strategy
Strategy Report
2,108 words
The Natural Contract
What new frameworks would need to be developed to encourage more-than-human design as a widely accepted approach?